What is security awareness training?

Security awareness training and testing (SATT) is the process of educating people in IT security to identify and avoid engaging with cyber risks.

Through practical and theoretical learning, cyber security awareness training and testing make a meaningful difference by changing staff behaviour when it comes to identifying cyber threats.

Often put in place by IT and security professionals, security awareness training’s ultimate goal is to mitigate damage to an organisation and reduce human cyber risk.

A cyber security training for business programme can cover a myriad of areas that pose potential threats to your digital infrastructure, such as GDPR training, QR phishing training and phishing protection.

Overview Topics Benefits Components Features Cost

Why do organisations need IT security training for employees?

Did you know, over 90% of security breaches are caused by staff being targeted by cybercriminals? That’s a pretty big portion. Because of this, IT security training services have become a prominent security measure for organisations of all sizes across all sectors around the world.

Cyber security awareness training and testing help to minimise risk, which ultimately results in preventing a loss of data, poor brand reputation and major money troubles.

With an effective security awareness training program in place, you reduce the chances of a breach occurring through your employees, whether it’s on or offline.

Best practices - cyber security training for business

An effective security awareness training service should concentrate on engaging staff to reduce user risk.

However, that’s easier said than done. Today, many security awareness training programs place the training aspect in the back of their minds, delivering congested, one-off sessions that overwhelm rather than educate and intrigue users.

The last thing you want is a bored AND forgettable employee. If you want computer security training for employees to stick, it needs to follow best practices.

To achieve this, training needs to be ingrained in an employee’s brain. It needs to be persistent. Security awareness training and testing does this by delivering training in small but regular doses, allowing users to pick up training when it fits into their busy schedules.

What topics does security awareness training cover?

As we mentioned above, cyber security training covers a wide range of areas and topics. Here, we’ve highlighted a few of the most important:

Email security

Email security training educates users on one of the most common ways a cyber threat can make its way into your organisation.

As it’s one of the most common ways in which teams communicate, educating staff on phishing, malware, and password security is a no-brainer.

Email security training enhances staff with the knowledge to keep an eye out for suspicious items lurking in the inbox.

Physical security

Security awareness training doesn’t just deal with the digital; it also ensures your in-house and physical security is robust and defended.

Physical security training focuses on issues such as access control, visitor management, badge policies, secure workstation practices, reporting suspicious behaviour, and emergency procedures.

Understanding network security within this area fosters a culture of vigilance, ensuring compliance with physical security protocols to safeguard assets and personnel with as much as your digital data.

QR code security

Did you know, 40 to 70% of your employees will engage in a QR code phishing attack and therefore be identified as a cyber security risk?

QR code phishing is on the rise, and many security awareness training programmes have begun to include it as a necessary addition to IT security training for employees.

QR code phishing services test your employees with quishing attack simulations and educate them on the threats of QR codes with a short online course. However, with Cyber security awareness training, we also offer practical awareness training that tests users’ abilities to stop and question the validity of a QR code.

Web security

Web security goes with training as well as butter to bread. From weak passwords and unauthorised access to malware and social engineering, a lack of awareness about secure browsing practices and data protection measures can be damaging to your organisation.

To remove these concerns, the right network security course needs to be put in place: one that emphasises safe browsing habits, raises awareness of suspicious links and educates users on maintaining secure connections.

Mobile and Wi-Fi security

With a rise in QR code phishing attacks, Artificial Intelligence and an “always-online” landscape, robust and unbreachable Wi-Fi security is a no-brainer. And that goes the same for your mobile phones too.

Unsecured networks, malware apps and phishing scams, the list is endless! Security awareness training that covers these potential (but very prominent) risks keeps you and your team in the know-how, ensuring your security is future-proofed and robust for any new threats that may appear.

A few of the best practices we’d like to highlight are encrypted connections, avoiding public Wi-Fi for sensitive activities and updating device software regularly.

External devices

As we mentioned earlier, a significant reason cyber breaches occur is due to human error. A lot of this can be down to the actual handling of information, but storage, data breaches and social engineering attacks also pose a threat.

All the more reason information security training should highlight and help remove these concerns from the workflow process.

Educating staff on how to handle information is paramount. By emphasising the importance of confidentiality, integrity, and availability, you instil a culture of responsibility, further mitigating the potential impact of security incidents and protecting sensitive information from unauthorised access or misuse.

What are the benefits of security awareness training?

Security awareness training covers a broad spectrum of topics and resolutions to help your organisation reach unbreachable status. But that’s not all; cyber security training for business can offer a multitude of benefits.

Reputation protection

As we mentioned previously, data breaches and security incidents can severely damage an organisation’s reputation, breaking trust among customers and partners. But, by demonstrating a commitment to security and privacy, your organisation can preserve its reputation and maintain the trust of your stakeholders.

Risk reduction

Security awareness training educates users on identifying and mitigating security threats, leading to a decrease in successful attacks. By understanding potential risks and implementing best practices, staff become more adept at safeguarding sensitive information and systems.

Incident prevention

Security awareness training enables proactive identification and the prevention of security incidents. Employees become the first line of defence against cyberattacks, reducing the likelihood of successful breaches and minimising the potential impact on your organisation.

Culture of security

Fostering a culture where security is prioritised and valued by all members of your organisation is imperative. Security awareness training helps promote a shared responsibility for cyber security; employees become more proactive in protecting assets and data.

Components of IT security training for employees

Initial phishing email

Here’s a question I’m sure we can all answer. How many unwanted spam emails still land in your staff mailboxes every day?

Phishing – and potentially harmful – emails appear in our inboxes regularly, and there’s a good chance your employees are engaging with them. That’s why SATT starts your training process with a baseline phishing test to check staff susceptibility. Engineered by our expert team, we’ll imitate a realistic spear phishing attack based on information cybercriminals can obtain to target your employees.

By benchmarking these results and monitoring employee progress throughout the cyber security awareness training process, you’ll get a clear view of progress throughout your organisation right from the get-go.

Ongoing assessments

You also need to put your team to the test! Security awareness training evaluates your team’s understanding of security protocols, their ability to identify and respond to security threats, and their adherence to established security policies.

Through simulated attacks, hands-on exercise and continual support from our team, you’ll acquire the skills to identify any gaps or weaknesses that need to be addressed through further training or education.

Interactive security awareness training videos

Our security awareness training for employees is thorough yet fit for time. Accompanied by a range of security awareness training videos, the course covers a wide range of key topics to provide your staff with a well-rounded and actionable understanding of the cyber threat landscape.

Detailed progress reports

Cyber security training works best when everyone is on board. It’s important to know how much cyber security training for employees is actually working for the employees.

Detailed reports cover all of our services, enabling you to understand exactly how your employees are performing. Not only does this help you attain compliance and cyber insurance, it allows us to see where we can put our attention to make improvements and offer a more bespoke service for your organisation.

Remediation advice

The aim of security awareness training and testing is for your organisation to maintain a 0% click rate on a monthly basis and encourage employees to adopt a culture of cyber security awareness, staying up to date with the latest cyber security threats.

Our experts will work closely with your organisation to ensure vigilance towards cyber threats is maintained with regular remedial training and actionable advice for improving security.

Why choose cyber security awareness?

Choosing the right computer security training for employees can be an intricate process. However, we hope with this article – alongside some additional highlights – Cyber Security Awareness training and testing is your all-in-one solution for educating staff and ultimately keeping your organisation secure.

Here are just a few ways in which security awareness training and testing can help build a robust defence for your network through our insightful educational programmes and security awareness testing:

Available in over 26 languages

As a UK provider, our course content comes in English as standard. However, Cyber Security Awareness works with businesses all across the world with their security awareness training requirements. Because of this, our training supports over 26 languages to ensure no matter where you are, you get a slice of the training pie you deserve.

Fully-managed service

Security training can be time-consuming and challenging to manage, especially when there are a million other things to do. That’s why Cyber Security Awareness manages your training programme for you, ensuring staff are notified, intrigued and positively engaged by what we offer. This frees up your time and resources, meaning you can stay focused on what matters most.

Update in line with legislation

Through new courses provided every year, along with course updates when legislations change, SATT has you covered in the latest requirements in compliance, whether it’s ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus or GDPR.

Result driven approach

Just in case we haven’t sold you on the Security awareness training service just yet, here’s a little extra…

Across our 17 offices, we’ve supported over 3,000 global organisations across 100 different countries, stopping over 600,000 employees from causing security incidents. Not to toot our own horn too hard, but we’re incredibly proud of the work our amazing team has achieved (so far) to reduce and completely prevent security risks for our customers.

When it comes to cyber security awareness training and testing, security awareness training and testing provides a market-leading, fully-managed service that enhances your organisation’s cyber security posture and meaningfully changes employees’ behaviour.

How much does security awareness training cost?

Security awareness training should be available for all organisations.

Cyber Security Awareness’s services fit your bill. Depending on the size of your organisation and turnover rate, we can provide you with an affordable solution and provide excellent value and educational experiences for your staff.